May
10th
2014
Did your fanon get battered? · 6:58pm May 10th, 2014
One thing about writing fanfics - the closer that you try to follow canon, the more danger they are in of being contradicted by new canon. So how did your fanfics survive season four? Thankfully mine came through mostly unsinged, although I can't say the same for Golden Oaks Library. Twilight's new residence definitely was not anticipated in my stories. However, the rest survives for now until season five at least.
I'm in a lucky position. I've just one story so far and that's not even finished. The description states "Set during Season 4 orslighty later". Until now the story was set in Canterlot. For the chapter 3 I plan to bring in Twilight and her residence in Ponyville. So now I have to decide when it is set definitely and by that which canon I will follow. Though it will not change the story per se because the main story doesn't need Ponyville.
I could probably avoid this choice by canceling one or two scenes. Right now I'm not sure what I will do, though.
Who cares about canon?
The whole point of fanfiction is that you can write whatever you want, and so what if new material contradicts it.
The show shouldn't be a bible to follow religiously, it should be an inspiration to base new things off of.
For example, I personally have not watched a single episode since 2011, and I don't need to. I already have enough background information to sculpt my own world.
2096549 I'm with Random there. (Well, mostly. I do watch the new episodes as they come out!) But my still-ongoing-epic got nerfed in season 2, and I didn't care then. Still don't!
Canon is a starting place, not a holy scripture.
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I didn't mean to say that canon is to be used at all times, heavens no! It clearly depends on several factors. The goal the writer wants to achieve with his story being just one of them.
But for me, in most cases, a certain degree of canon is appreciated for the simple fact that I like the universe for a reason. And much of that reason is the canon that the show built. I do like many stories where not much canon is left, it depends tremendously on the story itself. For example I don't like stories that just use the names of the characters, give them 90% other personalities and then make a crossover with some ridiculously different other universe. But that's just my personal taste. Of course fanfiction is meant to expand and alter (or even ignore) the canon of the show to somedegree.
Truth be told, the episode "Rainbow Falls" probably did more to split Light the Sky on Fire away from "official canon" than anything else, if only because it gave Bulk Biceps an official name and portrayed him as a slow, barely-competent flyer, which somewhat contradicts the scene down in Twilight's lab where she and Rainbow Dash are assuring Scootaloo that her wing size has nothing to do with her (in)ability to fly, and Dash uses
SnowflakeBulk Biceps as an example of somepony whose "wings are smaller than yours, squirt, and he flies just fine." (Not a major divergence, but a slightly annoying one, especially since it also explicitly contradicts the earlier episode whereSnowflakeBulk Biceps is shown to be a strong enough flyer to get into the Wonderbolts academy... which, come to think of it, actually makes me feel better about the whole thing; if the official canon can't even maintain consistency with itself, what am I worried about?)Other than that, the only major divergence S4 has caused that story is that Scootaloo still can't fly under her own power, while my story has her taking flight about six months after Twilight's ascension and coronation at the end of S3.
The destruction of the Golden Oaks Library Tree does potentially screw up a couple of ideas I had percolating, though.
If I forge ahead with them, I'll either have to change the setting, or make sure they're explicitly "anchored" in time as having taken place before "Twilight's Kingdom."
Do you mean the part that not all changelings are bad?
Canon be damned; if an idea diverges from the show, so what? Feeling that one must adhere to the show's canon stifles creativity and takes a lot of the fun out of writing fanfiction. Besides, I prefer to see deviations. If I want show canon, I'll sit down and watch it. And while the show was what got me in the first place, it's the fanfics and other fan media that interest me now; as long as fans keep creating, I don't actually need any more episodes (though I was glad S4 gave us Maud Pie HNNNGGG).
2145259 I did not mean to imply that we have to stick to canon. Many of the best stories diverge a lot from the show. However, some do try to stick as closely as possible, and while I'm not obsessive about it, I like to keep close to it. Season 5 could have a return of the changelings that will totally blow my stories out of the canon, but they will still stand on their own merits.